This invention relates to apparatus of individualized drinking cups to distinguish the cup of one user from that of another with the help of a unique indicia on a cup and a separate label with a matching indicia. This is particularly useful for two classes of users. One class consists of children who can't read. The other consists of elderly persons who tend to be forgetful.
Disposable drinking cups are extremely popular for the convenience they offer in situations in which large number of people are served. As is well known, disposable cups are offered by manufacturers in plastic or paper, and may be had in plain, unadorned form, in colors, or with decorative designs. Cups are typically purchased in bulk, and in the usual case, all of the cups in a given package are similar, if not identical, in appearance. This leads to situations in which the drinks of individual users, when put down momentarily, cannot be distinguished from one another. Consequently, an individual often cannot identify his own drink and is faced with the choice of drinking from a cup which may have been used by another, or abandoning what may indeed be his own drink.
Where confusion occurs of one drink for another, the results are unsanitary, and potentially injurious to health. On the other hand, when one unnecessarily abandons a cup because it cannot be positively identified, the result is wasteful, and uneconomical. Such waste is also ecologically injurious when the cups are made from non biodegradable materials such as plastic.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,908,877, to Kosisky, it was proposed to provide a circular tray having circumferentially spaced openings, marked with the names of individual users. Cups, also bearing the names of individual users, are associated with the openings. Such an arrangement permits the identification of cups and drinks, but in order for the disclosed technique to work, the cups must be returned to the tray. It has a further disadvantage of a need for prior identification of all individual users. Still another disadvantage is that the number of users it can accommodate is limited to the number of openings in the tray.
A drinking cup apparatus in U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,979, to Nemeroff, overcame many of the limitations of the Kosisky patent. There, it was proposed to provide a stack of cups, each bearing a unique indicia which differentiates that cup from the others thereby eliminating the need for prior identification. It further solved the problem of confusion as between drinks of large number of people at an event.
However, there is a deficiency in such an apparatus in that a user may well forget which identifying indicia was placed on his cup. It is the object of the present invention to provide for a separate set of labels bearing identifying indicia with the indicia on each label corresponding to a matching indicia on each cup. Thus, even if a user forgets the indicia on his cup, he can easily remind himself of it by looking at the matching indicia on the label. The labels will usually have adhesive backings but need not have for this apparatus to work. Accordingly, a label without an adhesive backing can be placed in his pocket, or with such backing, placed on his hand, clothing, or on other suitable locations.
Another object of the invention is to provide a teaching tool for children learning numbers, letters or symbols, or for persons with learning disabilities. This can be accomplished, for example, by having a child place a label on his hand and asking him to match the indicia on the label to a cup with a corresponding indicia.